Choosing the right kind of therapy for self-injuring youth, part 1
Over the next few days, I will be posting about the three options for contemporary therapeutic models with regards to self-injury that I have come across in my research. Today, I will be focussing on an individualized therapeutic approach.
Individualized Therapy. Although some researchers claim that no well accepted, empirically supported therapeutic models exist for treatment of NSSI, others argue that cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT) such as problem-solving therapy (PST) and dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) have the most support.[1] For example, Hollander in Helping Teens Who Cut: Second Edition: Using DBT Skills to End Self-Injury [2] and Gratz in Freedom from Self-Harm: Overcoming Self-Injury with Skills from DBT and Other Treatments [3] prefer to recommend individualized treatment methods. It is important to note that Self-Injury Outreach and Support, a respected Canadian website run by Guelph and McGill Universities in Canada, highly recommends these two texts and therapeutic models to therapists and family members.
If you would like to learn more about an individualized approach, please see some of the resources listed below. My next post will focus on a "mixed method" approach that incorporates individualized and family therapy approaches.
[1] Jennifer J. Muehlenkamp, “Empirically Supported Treatments and General Therapy Guidelines for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury,” Journal of Mental Health Counseling 28, no. 2 (April 2006): 166–175, https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.17744/mehc.28.2.6w61cut2lxjdg3m7.
[2] Michael Hollander, Helping Teens Who Cut: Second Edition: Using DBT Skills to End Self-Injury. (New York: Guilford Press, 2017).
[3] Kim Gratz and Alexander Chapman, Freedom from Self-Harm: Overcoming Self-Injury with Skills from DBT and Other Treatments. (California: New Harbinger, 2009).